Spectacle: The Music Video is the first museum exhibition to celebrate the art and history of the music video through sight and sound. Discover the black and white musical Soundies of the 1940s featuring big band, jazz, and swing stars, and the French-made Scopitones of the 1960s. Relive MTV masterpieces and witness how megastars like Madonna, David Bowie, and Michael Jackson shaped—and re-shaped—their creative identities.

Step into super-sized cinematic productions of today such as Steriogram’s Walkie Talkie Man directed by Michel Gondry, the crowdsourced Johnny Cash Project, and a special section dedicated to Seattle’s own Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—winners of four GRAMMY® awards including Best New Artist. With legendary props, interactive experiences, and more than 300 videos — and an in-depth examination of the special effects employed in their making — Spectacle: The Music Video traces the evolution of the genre and cements its place at the forefront of creative technology.

Spectacle: The Music Video is co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati and FLUX and curated by Jonathan Wells and Meg Grey Wells of FLUX. Exhibition design by Logan.